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Philadelphia

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is deeply concerned about the non-renewal of longtime University of Maryland (UM) professor and SPME member Melissa Landa. Currently, her contract is being investigated by the school's Office of Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct as an incident of retaliation and "religious, political, or national origin discrimination."

The contract non-renewal came after Landa filed a complaint in February with the grievance board challenging Francine Hultgren and John O'Flahavan's decision to remove her from the language arts instruction team in May 2016, according to a recent report by UM's the Diamondback.

Landa has been on the faculty for a decade, most recently as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership (TLPL) and received her PhD from the University of Maryland as an advisee of John O’Flahavan.

The tables started to turn on Landa when she began to actively fight BDS and anti-Semitism in early 2016. She increased her pro-Israel activism in the U.S., heading the Oberlin Chapter of Alums for Campus Fairness , which protested anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks by a professor, Joy Karega.

It was during that same time that Landa began feeling an increase of antagonism from her superiors. Landa said O’Flahavan pulled out of their joint conference presentation they had been working together for months. Also, days after she informed O’Flahavan of her partnership with Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv, he removed Landa from the TLPL Language Arts team.

Landa has been praised for her academic work as recently as May 2017, one month before her firing when she won the College of Education Exceptional Scholarship Award. Moreover, she has created a respectable teaching environment causing her former students to protest her firing.

SPME calls on the administration of the University of Maryland to stand by the pledge it made after the murder of second Lt. Richard Collins III on campus last May to, "come together as a campus community to reaffirm our core values of diversity, inclusion, respect and civil discourse." We demand that the university honor this pledge and that a full and complete investigation, personally overseen by UMD President Wallace Loh, be undertaken by the university, in order to determine the extent to which anti-Semitism and/or anti-Israel bias played a role in Professor Landa's termination.

Washington DC

For nearly three years, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines (Big Three) have mounted a historically expensive political campaign urging the US Government to abandon longstanding bipartisan Open Skies policy. They claim they have an ironclad legal case supported by uncontestable and overwhelming facts that irrefutably show Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways (Gulf Carriers) and their governments have breached the US-United Arab Emirates and US-Qatar Open Skies agreements. Accordingly, they argue, the US Government should take the unprecedented step of tearing-up those Open Skies agreements, abandoning its 25-year-old one-size-fits-all international aviation policy and replacing those agreements with competition-limiting ones tailored solely to the UAE and Qatar that pander to the profit-maximizing whims of the Big Three.

Increasingly, Trump Administration officials and industry observers have quite appropriately noted the gaping disconnect between the confident claims of the Big Three and their cowardice to stand behind them. Specifically, if the Big Three are as confident in their alleged unfair competition case as they tout, why are they so afraid to put it to the test by filing an International Air Transportation Fair Competitive Practices Act (IATFCPA) complaint? For over 40 years, the Big Three and their corporate predecessor airlines confidently relied on this Congressionally approved process for evaluating and addressing international aviation-related competitive concerns. Yet that proven statutory process is suddenly no longer sufficient or appropriate.

What is IATFCPA and why does it fit the Big Three’s Gulf Carrier allegations hand-in-glove? The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has an excellent summary on its website – http://btcnews.co/2fp5uFO. According to DOT, in enacting IATFCPA, Congress authorized it to “take action in response to anti-competitive, discriminatory, predatory or unjustifiable activities by a foreign government or foreign airlines against a U.S. airline.” Congress intended that any action deemed warranted after a thorough fact-based evaluation be expeditiously undertaken. According to DOT, “the Department has up to 180 days from the date that the complaint is filed to take action to resolve the issues raised, dismiss the complaint, or resolve it through diplomatic.”

So, why have the Big Three wasted nearly three years – nearly 30 months more than an IATFCPA complaint would have taken from start to finish – and tens of millions of shareholder dollars on a hugely unsuccessful political campaign when the well-established IATFCPA complaint process was available to them?

There is a tipping point where one objects so much it cries out that there is a mortal weakness in their position and they lose any semblance of credibility to argue the point. That is the precise position the Big Three find themselves in today. The clumsy, totally unconvincing and embarrassingly false explanations by the Big Three for their failure to file an IATFCPA complaint would have prompted Hamlet to observe, “the protectionists protest too much, methinks!”

How has the Big Three tried to explain away its failure to file an IATFCPA complaint?

First, in an impertinent slap at both Congress and DOT they dismissively branded the four-decade-old, Congressionally-approved IATFCPA process as nothing more than a “ridiculous acronym.” A statutory process Congress enacted in 1974 to protect US airlines from unfair international competitive practices, and one that has consistently delivered as Congress intended due to the expertise and professionalism of DOT, is nothing more than a “ridiculous acronym?” Up to now, the Big Three and their corporate predecessor airlines never seemed to think so as they consistently relied on IATFCPA.

Second, according to the Big Three in an anti-IATFCPA propaganda paper, an IATFCPA case would be “quite possibly lengthy.” There are two explanations: either Fair Skies - the Big Three’s public relations arm on this issue - does not have internet access and therefore has not read the DOT IATFCPA complaint overview page noted above which makes clear there is a 6-month statutory clock or it is a knowingly false argument. Perhaps it is a case of new math but, I think, 6 months is shorter than the nearly 36 months the Big Three’s failed political campaign has taken thus far. The argument IATFCPA would take too long is embarrassing and takes disingenuousness to soaring heights.

Finally, the Big Three makes the tortured and false argument that Open Skies and IATFCPA are completely separate. In other words, since 1992 when our first Open Skies agreement was signed, IATFCPA became a legal nullity. The Big Three clearly didn’t think so as recently as 2013 when they relied on IATFCPA to address discriminatory user charges at Italian airports. The US signed an Open Skies agreement with Italy in 1998, and that Open Skies relationship continues under the US-EU agreement signed in 2007. Enforcing Open Skies rights and the IATFCPA process are not mutually exclusive as the Big Three feebly claim, and the pathway those airlines chose to take in the recent Italian airport discriminatory fee matter convincingly shows that is so.

So what is the explanation? As I have written before, the answer is that the Big Three have IATFCPA-phobia – an acute fear of having the experts at DOT undertake a rigorous, apolitical and fact-based evaluation of the legal merits of their allegations. DOT’s professional staff would not be fooled by political sound bites and hollow advocacy. Delta’s headquarters knows and fears that. That is why it has unleashed Fair Skies to falsely attack and disparage the IATFCPA process to attempt to explain away the reality that Delta and its oligopoly partners American and United have long known they do not have a legal case so they have mounted a political campaign instead of filing an IATFCPA complaint.

It is time for the Trump Administration to tell the Big Three to either have the confidence and courage to file an IATFCPA complaint or to stop beating their protectionist war drum and instead focus on investing their record-setting profits in improving their product so they can compete more effectively.

Brian Mitchell is founder of the Business Travel Coalition and OpenSkies.travel.

Jerusalem

Jordan's foreign minister blames the "occupation" for the Temple Mount terror, and threatens even more dangerous crises. As recently as the mid-20th century, when Arabs last controlled parts of Jerusalem, they exhibited no respect for the Holy City.

In 1948, when Jordan took control of the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Old City, it divided the city for the first time in its 3,000-year history. Under the 1949 armistice agreement with Israel, Jordan pledged to allow free access to all holy places but failed to honor that commitment. From 1948 until the Six-Day War in 1967, the part of Jerusalem controlled by the Jordanians again became an isolated and underdeveloped provincial town, and its religious sites the target of religious intolerance. The Old City was rendered void of Jews. Jewish sites such as the Mount of Olives were desecrated. Jordan destroyed more than 50 synagogues, and erased evidence of a Jewish presence. In addition, all Jews were forced out of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City adjacent to the Western Wall, an area where Jews had lived for generations. For 19 years, Jews and Christians residing in Israel (and even Israeli Muslims) were barred from their holy places, despite Jordan's pledge to allow free access. Jews, for example, were unable to pray at the Western Wall; Christian Arabs living in Israel were denied access to churches and other religious sites in the Old City and nearby Bethlehem, also under Jordanian control. During Jordan's reign over eastern Jerusalem, its restrictive laws on Christian institutions led to a dramatic decline in the holy city's Christian population by more than half - from 25,000 to 11,000 - a pattern that characterized Christian Arabs in other Arab countries throughout the Middle East where religious freedom is not honored. It is worth noting that after Jordan annexed the West Bank in the 1950s, it too failed to make Jerusalem - a city that Arabs now claim as 'the third most holy site of Islam' - its capital.

It was only after the Six-Day War that the Jewish Quarter was rebuilt and free access to holy places was reestablished for all religions.

Washington D.C.

US Open Skies agreements with the UAE and Qatar have delivered huge benefits to US consumers, aerospace manufacturers, the travel and tourism industry and the economy writ large. The two agreements have yielded vast increases in connectivity between the US and destinations that US airlines don't serve and have enabled cargo carriers to establish global networks over which flow billions of dollars of exported US products.

Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines (Big Three) are seeking to undermine these agreements and are demanding that your Administration protect them from competition. Importantly, the Big Three have used their considerable newfound financial and political clout from industry consolidation to bully Members of Congress into supporting them by petitioning you.

However, the Big Three do not speak for other US airlines or the many other Open Skies stakeholders including organizations that annually purchase billions of dollars of airline seats. Destinations that the Gulf Carriers serve from the US over their Middle East hubs to points in Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Middle East itself provide business travelers with more efficient and higher quality alternatives to connecting on Big Three alliance partners at Frankfort, Paris or London. Given the competitive stranglehold the Big Three have over the transatlantic market, Gulf Carrier growth is not just welcomed, but critically important.

The Big Three, with their antitrust immunized alliance partners, are demanding that the Administration protect their enormous transatlantic profits from this sorely needed indirect Gulf Carrier competition. However, if the US caves to the Big Three’s demands it would set a horrible precedent for other countries to follow were they to seek protection for their airlines from competition by US carriers. Open Skies agreements between countries around the world could easily unravel and the benefits to consumers, communities, cargo/shippers and the travel/tourism industry disappear.

Mr. President, for 25 years America’s pro-competition, pro-consumer, pro-growth Open Skies policy has proven itself to be the Made-in-America Gold Standard for international bilateral trade agreements. Open Skies is a policy that serves the best interest of our country, and one that should not be jettisoned because the self-pleading Big Three prefer to seek government protection rather than the more difficult work of improving their products and services and competing in the marketplace.

Kevin Mitchell is Founder of the Business Travel Coalition; OpenSkies.travel.

Philadelphia

The ZOA is appalled by, and calls upon the Jordanian parliament to retract its praise for the Arab terrorists who murdered two Druze Israeli policemen on Friday on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel. Jordanian Parliament Speaker Atef Tarawneh’s praise of the Arab terrorists/murderers as “martyrs who sowed and watered the pure land” and as “young Palestinians who are still fighting in the name of the nation” etc. incites still more unbridled terror, and instigates the repeated use of holy religious sites to hide terrorists’ weapons and as places to perpetrate terror. ZOA also calls upon the Jordanian Speaker Tarawneh to retract his false, offensive claim that Israeli “occupation” of Jerusalem and the “West Bank” (Judea/Samaria) are “lighting the fire of revenge” among young Arabs and justified the killing.

The Jordanian parliament’s and its speaker’s actions and statements violate the 1994 Treaty of Peace Between The State of Israel And The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (the “Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty”). The Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty requires the parties to not incite or instigate terror, and recognized that the international boundary between Jordan and Israel is the Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers, and the Dead Sea, etc. – thereby confirming that Israel is not an occupier of any other nation’s land.

It is also absurd for Jordanians to call Israelis “occupiers” – when Jordan was created out of, “occupied,” territory and continues to be situated on 78% of the territory designated for Jewish settlement and the Jewish homeland under binding international law (i.e., the League of Nations Mandate and San Remo resolution).

The Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty also requires Jordan: “to refrain from . . . instigating, inciting, assisting or participating in acts or threats of belligerency, hostility, subversion or violence against the other Party [Israel].” (Article 4.3.2) ... “to refrain from . . . joining or in any way assisting, promoting or co-operating with any coalition, organisation or alliance with a military or security character with a third party, the objectives or activities of which include launching aggression or other acts of military hostility against the other Party, in contravention of the provisions of the present Treaty.” (Article 4.4.1) ... “to recognise and . . . respect each other’s [Israel’s] right to live in peace within secure and recognised boundaries.” (Article 2.2) ... “to act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.” (Article 9)

When ISIS killed 10 people and wounded 34 people in an attack in Jordan this past December, Jordanian officials condemned the attack as a “cowardly terrorist attack.” There is no difference between a Palestinian Arab terrorist attack against innocent Jewish civilians and Israeli Druze policemen and ISIS terrorist attacks against innocent Jordanians. As President Trump stated during his Speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh on May 21, 2017, our nations must unite to drive out and “vanquish the forces of terrorism . . . That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires. And it means standing together against the murder of innocent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews, and the slaughter of Christians.”

New York City

The Authors Guild supports the fundamental principle that authors, like any other workers, have a right to be paid for their work. While it’s becoming increasingly common for publications to ask contributors to write for free—a practice we don’t condone—at least it’s the author’s decision to do so, where, for instance, they believe that the exposure will compensate for the lack of pay. But recently we’ve been seeing prestigious publications hiring writers under contracts where they agree to pay them within a fixed amount of time, but then not paying up. That’s just what’s been happening to Ebony magazine contributors recently, and we’ve heard of incidents of similar treatment by other publications. We cannot tolerate this kind of blatant violation of freelance contract terms, and we must ensure that it stops. Dozens of writers have taken to social media in recent weeks to protest Ebony’s poor payment practices. The National Writers Union (“NWU”) has estimated that there may be as many as 50 freelancers owed more than $200,000. After the hashtags #EbonyOwes and #EbonyStillOwes began trending, and the NWU applied pressure, the magazine promised in a June 3 statement that it would have the issue resolved within 30 days. But as of today, some writers still haven’t been paid. The NWU is representing freelance journalists owed money by Ebony, and we are supporting their efforts. We’d like to collect more information about both the extent of Ebony’s failure to pay and the extent of this practice at other publications. If you’re a journalist who’s been the victim of late or non-payment by Ebony or another publication in the last several years, please send us a message containing the name of the publication and a brief account of the circumstances using the contact button below or via email to staff@authorsguild.org. Let us know whether we can share the information with the NWU and if you would like us to keep your name confidential.

Los Angeles

“Once again we are witness to a member of the Japanese elite invoking praise for Hitler and Nazi policies. This time from a Central Bank official. An outrage. While we note his apology Yutaka Harada, a member of the board of the Bank of Japan had praised Hitler's economic policies as ‘appropriate’ and ‘wonderful’. Really? Did this economic ‘expert’ factor in the billions in assets that Hitler built his policies on systematic theft and terror that included stripping of billions of assets from German and Austrian Jews in the 1930s prior to WWII? Or the terror he threatened to unleash on any German who dared oppose his policies? This is not the first time that members of Japan’s elite publicly expressed their admiration for some elements of Hitler and Nazi Germany. Each of these incidents creates deep unease among Japan’s neighbors and friends. Beyond apologies, it is clear that it is not only high school students but leaders of 21st century Japan who should be learning about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The Wiesenthal Center calls on the Bank of Japan to present our Japanese language exhibition on the Holocaust, Courage to Remember, to its entire staff.

Jerusalem

To the President of the United States, the Honorable Mr. Donald Trump

Dear Mr. President,

We, the undersigned families of terror victims in Israel, welcome your upcoming visit to Israel. We are, however, concerned about your plans to facilitate direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) prior to any declaration by the latter to halt payments to murderous terrorists. As is widely documented, the PA pays large sums of money to convicted terrorists who have murdered innocent Israelis, among them our loved ones. In the past year alone the PA has paid some 250 million USD to terrorists, which is nothing short of incitement that motivates Palestinian youth to murder Israelis. As the size of the payments are made in accordance with the severity of the crime, terrorists are motivated to commit extreme acts of cruelty and barbarity. This immoral policy must stop immediately before any talks can commence.

We still recall how in 2013, under heavy pressure from the previous US administration, Israel released dozens of terrorists from prison as part of a deal aimed at advancing peace talks. The PA, led by Abu Mazen, awarded those murderers with large “prison release grants” - blood payments for their acts of terror. We hope and pray that history will not repeat itself. In light of this, we hereby extend a request to meet with you in order to share with you our views and stories. We are the voice of the terror victims and bereaved families in Israel, and unfortunately, our number and pain are great. With your current mission to the Middle East and your desire to meet with all sides of the conflict, we call upon you to meet with us as well, the victims of decades-long Palestinian terror and violence that has claimed so many lives. We have followed the recent elections in the United States with great interest, and believe that your victory heralds an opportunity for change. This change, however, must also affect the Palestinians. Before there can be any dialogue, the Palestinians must demonstrate good faith and show that they are truly willing to change their ways by stopping incitement and halting all payments to terrorists who murdered Israelis, only for being Jews.

We pray that you will be blessed with success in your efforts to bring a just and lasting peace to the Land of Israel, and to the Middle East as a whole, during your time in office.

We, the bereaved families of terror victims in Israel, who have tragically lost our loved ones, innocent Israelis, young and old, from all walks of life, know best the meaning of violence and terror, and wish to secure a better and safer future for our children and for the children of all peoples around us.

We hope that we can meet with you to discuss this further.

Yours truly,

The Undersigned Families

This letter is signed by the following people whose loved ones were murdered in terrorist attacks:

1)Lea and Yossi Zur, parents of Asaf

2)Hagit and Yossi Mendelevich, parents of Yuval

3)Ronit Harush, sister of Daniel

4)Zipi and Moni Harush, parents of Daniel

5)Ron Kehrmann, father of Tal

6)Dror Kehrman, brother of Tal

7)Nava and Moti Lachem, parents of Eliyahu

8)Chaya Rond, Mother of Erez

9)Doron Menchel, Father of Daniel

10)Zeev Rap, Father of Helena

11)Ilana Romano, widow of Yosef Romano, member of Israel delegation to Munich Olympics

12)Anki Shpitzer, widow of Andrei, member of Israel delegation to Munich Olympics

13)Gila Molcho, sister of Ian Fienberg

14)Pnina Kachlon, mother of Ronen

15)Shvuel Schivscurder, son of Mordechai and Zirel and brother of Avraham, Chemda & Raya killed in Sbaro restaurant in Jerusalem

16)Amichai Ariel, Father of Halel

17)Dov Kalmanovich, was badly wounded in a terror attack

18)Shula and Zamir Oved, parents of Be’eri

19)Chayim Katav, brother of Meital

20)Eliyahu Katav, father of Meital

21)Devora and Eli David, sister of Moti and aunt of Tom

22)Menucha Kurman, daughter of Yehudit and Eliezer

23)Devora Gonen, mother of Danni

24)Chayim Yosef and Ruti Luver, Sister of Dani Gonen

25)Netanel and Hani Kanias, sister of Dani Gonen

26)Ika Atia, father of Inbar

27)Avi Bromberg, Nephew of Avraham Bromberg

28)Roni and Dani Lerner, parents of Baruch

29)Miri Firstenberg, Daughter of Ephrayim and Chana, and sister of Chaim

30)Anat Zer Cohen, Sister of Gilad Zer

31)Esther Firsteter, Mother of Smadar

32)Avishai Firsteter, brother of Smadar

33)Almakaies Shimon, father of Keren and grandfather of Liran and Noya

Washington DC

This week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad again used chemical weapons to brutally massacre innocent Syrian men, women, and children. There is absolutely no place in human society for chemical weapons, and those who would use these barbaric tools must be held accountable. President Trump's missile strike was a measured response to deter further use of chemical weapons by Assad and the Syrian regime. However, this strike will not solve the Syrian crisis nor provide humanitarian assistance to millions of Syrians so desperately in need. President Trump must now present to the American people and Armed Forces a comprehensive, long-term strategy for ending the Syrian crisis, providing stability to the region, removing Assad, and holding him accountable for his crimes.”

Washington D.C.

The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) applauded the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in filing a civil antitrust lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the proposed merger of Alaska Airways (“Alaska”) and Virgin America (Virgin”). Preserving competition and the incentive to contest new markets is paramount in a domestic industry where four airlines control some eighty percent of seats – down from eleven airlines in recent years.

DOJ offered a proposed settlement wherein Alaska would need to discontinue its codeshare arrangement with American Airlines (“American”) on routes where Virgin competes directly with American and also where Alaska would likely initiate new service in competition with American post merger. DOJ would allow continued codesharing on routes that could offer some consumer benefits, e.g., to destinations one of the airlines would not likely serve on its own in the near term.

Likewise, DOJ advised that any sale or lease of gates or slots by Alaska that were acquired by Virgin as part of the settlement of DOJ’s lawsuit challenging the 2013 merger of American and US Airways would require DOJ pre-approval. This would ensure that American does not regain control of those assets. Airports where those assets are housed are Dallas Love Field Airport, Washington Reagan National Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Virgin America and Alaska Airways are both innovative, quality airlines that provide the competitive rivalry necessary to discipline prices for consumers and keep pressure on airlines to improve customer service levels on many routes Start-up airline entry is very difficult today and remedies for the many competition and consumer problems are few. As such, the preservation of existing competition is critically important."

Philadelphia

Today, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) praised the bipartisan legislation to fight anti-Semitism on college campuses around the country. The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, introduced by U.S. Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Bob Casey (D-PA), and passed unanimously, will provide the Department of Education (DOE) the necessary statutory tools to examine anti-Semitic incidents in the most broadest and effective way possible. Additionally, it was very encouraging to see the companion bill introduced by Reps. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and Ted Deutch (D-FL). The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act will mirror the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism definition of anti-Semitism which includes the critical language where anti-Israel conduct crosses the line into anti-Semitism. As such, the new Act enhances the Department of Education’s (DOE) ability to identify, investigate, and punish all forms of anti-Semitism, including anti-Zionism and anti-Israel harassment.

When asked about the Act, Senator Casey listed the following examples of anti-Semitism in his explanation of the bill:

• Calling for, aiding or justifying the killing or harming of Jews

• Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust

• Demonizing Israel by blaming it for all interreligious or political tensions

• Judge Israel by a double standard that one would not apply to any other democratic nation

Further, the Act also recognizes that according to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 both the Department of Justice and the Department of Education have properly concluded that it “prohibits discrimination against Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and members of other religious groups when the discrimination is based on the group’s actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics or when the discrimination is based on actual or perceived citizenship or residence in a country whose residents share a dominant religion or a distinct religious identity.”

I commend Senators Scott and Casey, and Representatives Roskam and Deutch, for understanding the growing threat of anti-Semitism and introducing these two complementary pieces of legislation as they will help ensure that our faculty and students can continue to support Israel without hesitation on their campuses.

Peoria

Peoria County has two War Memorials: a Soldiers and Sailors monument, commemorating the Civil War, and a War Memorial dedicated to World Wars I & II (with approximately 1,000 engraved granite brick pavers surrounding it). We are in the process of building our third War Memorial (named our Final Salute) dedicated to all conflicts involving the U.S. Military after World War II. We have raised the money and 'broke ground' on the monument, itself. We are still raising money to pay for the statues, the concept of which is a soldier evocative of each era (Korea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror) will be in the center of the greenery at the courthouse, returning to their bunker...appropriate called "Soldiers on Patrol". There is some question as to how, or even if, we can put a sandbag wall at the back of the memorial - we would like to, but concrete is too susceptible to decay - and we want this monument to last. We have the funds raised for two of the statues, still raising capital for the third.

We are selling engraved granite bricks to help with raising the money. Any dollars left over after the monument is completed will go into a special, dedicated fund for the maintenance of the monument. Those making a donation (not buying a brick) will be listed on a plaque at the site of the monument (turned so it does not take away from the engraved names of those who died in service on the walls of the monument. Different amounts apply, the minimum is $1,000. The area available is much less than the WWI&II monument; therefore the number of pavers is considerably reduced. Cost for a paver is $150 for a 4x8" (3 lines, 21 characters/spaces per line) and $500 for a 12x12" (9 lines, 21 characters/spaces per line). All engravings must be appropriate - no advertisements. Many who do not have anyone particular they wish to honor have specified something such as "Honor and Gratitude" and their name.

A certificate, suitable for framing, will be created immediately and sent to the purchaser for review and authorization. The certificate will have a light background of the planned memorial with, on the left, the exact phrasing for the brick as specified. On the right the names of the contributor/s. We have found families like to send a certificate, (brick purchased amongst family members with all names listed [up to nine]) and send the certificate to a Veteran (perhaps in a nursing home in Florida). The Veteran receives the gift, can hang on a wall. Upon the finalization of the brick, a postcard is sent to the buyer (1) with a photo of the memorial on the back of the card, with an 'x' marking the approximate location of the engraved brick.

This has been a labor of love for our large committee. Our hope is the memorial will be completed in 2017.

Washington DC

We are pleased with the array of highly qualified candidates that President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering for Secretary of Defense. The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) - an organization dedicated to a robust U.S. national security posture and a strong U.S.-Israel security relationship - does not and will not endorse any candidate for this or any other government position. However, we feel compelled to convey that characterizations of one candidate, General James N. Mattis, USMC (ret.), as anti-Israel are ill-founded and unfair.

The criticism revolves around extemporaneous remarks General Mattis made at the Aspen Institute in July 2013 on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. They were made shortly following his retirement after a very distinguished four-decade-long career in the U.S. military, with his last position as Commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), where his area of responsibility covered much of the Middle East and Central Asia (excluding Israel).

We understand and share many of the objections to his remarks, including that he seemed to blame mostly Israel for the impasse, despite the critical challenges it faces in lacking a stable, moderate Palestinian partner that genuinely seeks a durable peace with the Jewish state. Some American Jews and even Israelis make the same mistake. In any case, he has not repeated those remarks.

On the larger U.S. military and strategic issues related to the Middle East, which a Secretary of Defense will have to address early on, General Mattis has notably and indisputably distinguished himself in advocating for a more robust U.S. military posture to counter, contain and deter Iran, even at the peril of his military career, and its importance to American security and the restoration of America's position in the Middle East - views JINSA has strongly propounded. Along similar lines, he has stressed the need to stand by our longstanding regional friends.

General Mattis' outlook on these issues aligns perfectly with Israel's, which considers an aggressive Iran its greatest strategic threat, and a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat. Israel also seeks a strong U.S. presence in the Middle East. General Mattis has noted this alignment of views with Israel, and correctly explained the synchronization of Israeli and Arab outlooks on these subjects. This should be heartening to the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe that a strong State of Israel is necessary for its own sake and important for a strong America.

JINSA's experiences with General Mattis have been very positive, including many private discussions in the last few years on the Middle East. We recently consulted several notable Israelis and Americans in the civic and military spheres who also have interacted with him and they share our confidence in his support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.

Were General Mattis to become Secretary of Defense, and work more closely with Israel in that position, an opportunity he lacked at CENTCOM, we believe he will become an even closer friend of the State of Israel.

Washington DC

There was a time when the Anti-Defamation League or ADL, under the leadership of Abe Foxman, tried to remain apoltical and stand for the fight against anti-Semitism across the political spectrum. Under the new leadership of Jonathan Greenblatt that is no longer true. Who is Jonathan Greenblatt? Prior to taking over the leadership of the ADL in 2015, Greenblatt held a position in the White House as Special Assistant to Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. At the same time, he worked for the billionaire, George Soros, at the Aspen Institute, a self-styled social justice organization. Much has been written about George Soros and his hate war against Israel, but it can be concisely summarized as follows:

"But perhaps the archetype of Israel-hating is billionaire, George Soros. Mr. Soros spends millions of his own money each year to support anti-Israel organizations and pressures the American government to support the supposed “victims” of Israel."

Before his stint with the Obama administration and with the Soros funded Aspen Institute, Greenblatt was an aide in the Clinton White House, and in 1992, he worked on Bill Clinton's first Presidential campaign. All of which would not matter if Greenblatt was capable of avoiding partisanship and steering the ADL on a straight and narrow, non-partisan course. But that's not what he is doing, and if allowed to stay in this position, he will destroy the ADL as we have come to know it.

Two issues illustrate the partisanship Greenblatt has adopted for the ADL's agenda.

First, a movement arose this year in many states to pass legislation that would have barred government contracts with groups supporting BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against Israel. It is important to understand that these laws did not prevent the anti-Israel and usually anti-Semitic BDS campaigners from exercising their First Amendment rights and continuing their campaigns to attack Israel. BDS activities themselves were not banned or criminalized. But the proposed laws restricted state government agencies from indirectly supporting BDS groups by preventing government agencies from bestowing government contracts upon them. There was nothing wrong with such legislation, yet the ADL publicly opposed it. Many former ADL supporters were stunned by the ADL's perfidy in acting to help those attacking Israel. This article in Frontpage magazine illustrates Greenblatt's protection of the BDS movement and other left wing groups that attack Israel, such as J Street.

Second, a most recent example of Greenblatt's partisan transformation of ADL is its praise of Representative Keith Ellison, a leading candidate to chair the Democratic National Committee. Ellison, a Muslim congressman from Minnesota, has a long history of anti-Israel advocacy. He has labeled Israel a proponent of Apartheid, blamed Israel for causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, defended the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case involving the funneling of funds to Hamas, and voted against the bill to provide $225 million in funding for Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system. But perhaps most egregious is Ellison's 9 year association with Louis Farrakhan and his notoriously anti-Semitic Nation of Islam organization. Ellison in the past wrote under the names "Keith E. Hakim, in which he spoke respectfully of Farrakhan and defended the NOI's national spokesman and Farrakhan's right-hand man, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, notorious for his anti-white, anti-Jewish, and anti-gay opinions. Elsewhere, Ellison used other pseudonyms, including Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison Muhammad." Ellison appeared on stage with Khalid Abdul Muhammad at a rally in which Muhammad proclaimed "If words were swords, the chests of Jews, gays and whites would be pierced." Two years earlier Muhammad "described Jews as 'hook-nosed, bagel-eatin', lox-eatin' impostors...." http://www.meforum.org/2756/keith-ellison-stealth-jihad

Washington

Members of the Lebanese diaspora, particularly those who have made the United States their home, have always expressed their aspirations to see their motherland secure, free, sovereign, and independent, particularly in light of the internal challenges and external dangers it faces.

In the wake of Lebanon’s election of Michel Aoun as its new president on Monday, the Lebanese Information Center in Washington, D.C., in its quest to uphold Lebanon’s status in the international community, states the following:

·First: We congratulate the Lebanese people on the election of a president after nearly two and a half years and 45 failed parliamentary sessions. This achievement should be a source of pride for Lebanon’s citizens, already weathering volatile developments in a region ruled by dictatorship, despotism, and extremism.

·Second: This presidential election constitutes for Lebanon an opportunity to return to its tradition of proper democratic practices. For the last quarter century, foreign powers - chiefly Syria, through its military and political occupation of Lebanon - have dictated how state institutions function and who is at their helm.

·Third: After 29 months of a presidential vacuum prolonged by the deliberate disabling of the constitutional process, we cannot but call on the Lebanese Parliament to amend Article 49 of the Constitution, to prevent the imposition of a two-thirds quorum for its electoral sessions and thereby avoid any further wrongful interpretations of the constitution by ill-intentioned politicians. Laws and constitutions are meant to mobilize governments and legitimate authorities, not block the democratic process. The intentional boycott of presidential elections by members of parliament constituted unacceptable behavior that warrants the impeachment of responsible MPs.

·Fourth: The election of a Christian head of state in the Middle East is a clear translation of Lebanon’s ideals of true partnership and power-sharing among its various religious communities. The presidency is the highest post for Christians in Lebanon, and its filling after months of vacuum gives them hope for real representation in parliament and other government institutions in the future.

·Fifth: With the start of a new presidential term in Lebanon, we look to the president to maintain good relations with Lebanon’s global allies, and particularly the United States. We expect him to respect Lebanon’s international commitments and obligations, especially the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701, for the sake of a free and sovereign Lebanon.

·Sixth: We emphasize to the new president the importance of Lebanon's success in its fight against terrorism, building on the tremendous success of Lebanese armed and security forces in defeating extremist militias threatening Lebanon’s security, both from the Syrian borders and from within Lebanon.

·Seventh: Similarly, Lebanon’s new president cannot ignore the danger posed by internal militias, Lebanese and others, chiefly among them radical Shiite movement Hezbollah. Hezbollah has intentionally developed into a state-above-the-state, hijacking national decision-making processes, threatening peace, security and stability among Lebanese communities, and executing Iran’s foreign agenda at the expense of the Lebanese people.

·Eighth: The rampant corruption within the government is a rising menace, destroying the Lebanese citizen’s faith in national institutions. We call on the new president and future government to eradicate this plague, in order to build a truly functioning state in the service of its citizens.

·Ninth: The Lebanese Information Center in the US remains committed to work through its organization, bolstered by its grassroots support and longstanding relationships with the US government, to build a free, sovereign and democratic Lebanon, for the good of the Lebanese people and in the interests of the United States of America.

Washington

The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) is disturbed by the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic resolution passed by UNESCO declaring that the Jewish people have no connection to the Old City of Jerusalem. On Thursday, October 13, 2016, the 200 session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) met in Paris, France. Where they voted on Item 25 of the provisional agenda under “Occupied Palestine” that disregards the historical and validated Jewish and Christian ties to the Old City of Jerusalem. There were 24 countries that voted in favor of the resolution while 6 voted against and 26 abstained.

The resolution refused to refer to the Temple Mount as anything but the Islamic names “Al-Aqsa Mosque” and “Haram al-Sharif.” Further more, it went on to establish that the site is sacred only to Muslims and fails to mention the sacred and historical background of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people. UNESCO is supposed to be an organization that exists to promote international understanding through protection of heritage and support for cultural diversity, but sadly this action portrays a different picture – one of cultural hatred toward the Jewish people and an effort to delegitimize the Jewish State of Israel.

“No forum or body in the world can say that there is no connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel and to Jerusalem. A body that does so is imply humiliating itself” said Israeli President Reuven Rivilin in response to the vote. There have been a myriad of historical, factual, and archaeological connections between the Jews and Christians and Jerusalem. There is a deep-rooted historical and religious connection of Jews and Christians to Jerusalem that cannot be denied. For over 2,000 years, the Jewish people have been sustained in their belief of a return to Jerusalem, our holiest city. The return to a united, rebuilt Jerusalem has been part of the prayers that we say three times a day. For many years the Palestinian Authority and its cohorts in the international community have tried to erase our history and our historic, religious and cultural ties to Jerusalem. It is absurd to believe that international body is strong enough to eradicate the irrevocable connection of the Jewish people to their holiest city.”

Los Angeles

Shimon Peres was a symbol of the reborn Jewish state and strode the world stage representing the hopes and dreams of everyday Israelis and Jews around the world. A kibbutznik, he became the personal right-hand man of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. He is the last of Israel's “founding fathers” whose seventy years of public service to Israel included Member of Knesset, Minister of Defense, Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and President. Driven by his vision of peace he was a primary architect of the ill-fated Oslo Peace Process - ultimately rejected by Yasser Arafat in 2000 with tragic consequences for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples - for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Even when ending conflict seemed distant, Peres never lost hope and launched a multitude of efforts aimed at building peace between Arabs and Jews. As President, he became Israel's elder statesman. He used his office to promote high tech innovation to be used for the advancement of humanity around the world, often with humor and charm. He was equally at home with world leaders and common citizens alike - from kings, presidents, generals and popes to shopkeepers, workers, and green IDF recruits. Shimon Peres had spoken of his praise for the work of StandWithUs in reaching out to people around the world about Israel. His unremitting commitment to Israel and the Jewish people will be his enduring memorial. May his memory be a blessing.

Washington D.C.

I join millions of people in Israel, the United States, and around the world in mourning the loss of former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres. As one of Israel's founding fathers, President Peres played an integral role in firmly cementing the Jewish state as a beacon of democracy in the region and America's closest ally. President Peres was one of the most admired peacemakers of our time. Throughout tumultuous periods in Israel, including wars, assassinations, and political upheaval, President Peres remained committed to the goal of peace between Israel and all her neighbors. He worked tirelessly to resolve the complicated differences between Israelis and Palestinians, never giving up on the vision of two states for two peoples. Part of his indelible and everlasting legacy instructs each of us to never give up on peace. As we mourn the loss of this extraordinary leader and world-renowned statesman, let us redouble our commitment to the many causes to which he devoted his life. President Peres' memory is a blessing and an inspiration to all.

Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-Rockland/Westchester) is Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee

West Bloomfield MI

Regarding the slanders and gross inaccuracies concerning Israel’s history in your textbook “World Regional Geography” that shows your editors and writers are clearly uninformed and obviously biased. We see:

“Israel’s excellent technical and educational infrastructure, its diverse and prospering economy, and the large aid contributions (public and private) it receives from the United States and elsewhere, have made it one of the region’s wealthiest, most technologically advanced and militarily powerful countries.The Palestinian people, by contrast, are severely impoverished and undereducated after years of conflict, inadequate government and meager living […] often in refugee camps. Through a series of events over the past 60 years, Palestinians have lost most of the lands on which they used to live.”

Why are the Palestinian Arabs "impoverished and undereducated”? It is because their Arab leadership has used them as pawns to further their aims of destroying Israel with their use of Jew hatred rhetoric in their mosques, schools and media? Is it because their entire educational system has always been directed toward the destruction of Israel rather than positive, creative pursuits?

Why do the Palestinian Arabs have “inadequate government and meager living” despite the billions of dollars given to them by the EU and U.S.? It is because their Arab leadership has used the funds to enrich themselves and purposely contain their people in squalor to create a class that hates their “oppressors” – Israeli’s and Jews.

Why haven’t the Arabs taken advantage of “Israel’s excellent technical and educational infrastructure, its diverse and prospering economy” to enhance their society? It’s because they prefer overwhelming Jew hatred force fed by their leaders and their dream of destroying Israel to improving their people’s lives.

Where are your comments on the Arab child abuse that creates child murderers to murder Jewish families, that indoctrinates them every minute of every day to hate Jews, that maintains “refugee camps” (better Arab retention/indoctrination camps) supported by our tax dollars thru UNRWA. Do you mention Arab children’s summer camps that indoctrinate, teach and train how to murder Jews?

While I’m at it – where is your mention of the 800,000 Jewish refugees driven out of Arab lands after 1948 and absorbed by Israel? Why haven’t the Arab “refugees” been accepted by the Arab countries? It’s because the Arab leadership’s purpose of using them as pawns to further their aims of destroying Israel.

Finally - your distortions without facts include “Palestinians have lost most of the lands on which they used to live.”. Exactly what “lands” have they lost? They lived in the Palestine Mandate, refused the U.N. partition plan and went to war.

London

Okay. I read all the many articles, critiques, and rejoinders regarding Mr. Black's excellent survey of victimization of Black people (see Nazi Policy and Black Victims--Before, During, and After the Holocaust--from Africa to Berlin to North Carolina), and also Martin Barillas informative report (see Award-winning Historian Innovates Global Conference Call to Answer Reader Questions). I learned an extraordinary amount from Mr. Black's clear and shocking continuity. Clearly, Prof. Best is trying to colour Mr. Black's intent, guessing at his intentions and beliefs. That is not acceptable. Even more unacceptable is the fact that Prof. Best did not even make an effort to join the global conference and ask a question-- or answer one. He therefore insulted all those who could have gained from this event. On the other hand, we see Mr. Black doing something that I see as a first. He actually offered to answer any questions from anywhere in the world. I have read three of Mr. Black's books and I am happy to see this research will yield another.

New York

I just read the article the article by Martin Barillas (see Award-winning Historian Innovates Global Conference Call to Answer Reader Questions) on the conference call in response to a critique in History Network News. Sorry I missed the call and chance to ask Edwin Black some questions. Having looked at Jeremy Best's theoretical interpretation of Edwin Black's turning point article about Nazi theories and actions that affected Africans and African-Americans, and the original essay (see Nazi Policy and Black Victims--Before, During, and After the Holocaust--from Africa to Berlin to North Carolina), and having followed the back and forth a bit, I think Best seems pretty off-base. Black's work covers much more than the African genocide and extends into the late twentieth century eugenics and sterilization covered by his book War Against the Weak. The continuity is stunning. Black seems right in his comments about safe Ivory Tower quibbles by Best. Best should probably remain in his Ivory Tower as suggested. It takes guts to expose some of these atrocities.

Jerusalem

In June 2006, a highly regarded historian of the Holocaust of the Jews of Greater Hungary, amidst a flurry of activity concerning the lawsuit against the SNCF (French National Railroad) and albeit short-lived, victory in a French court, asked me if we could then embark on a suit against the MAV (Hungarian National Railroad) for its role in the murder of the Jews of Greater Hungary, complicity in murder, aiding and abetting attempted murder and as it turned out a long time later, the spoliation of the Jews. I approached the Floersheimer Chair in Constitutional Law (Prof. Richard Weisberg) at Cardozo University, who had won great things for survivors and their heirs, from France, in the matter of spoliation of Jewish assets in banks there during the Holocaust.

The rest is history. Suit was filed for the first time in 2010 with other colleagues (Pavich Law Group) in the Chicago district court for the first time in 2010. A class action suit against the railroad, an instrumentality of the Hungarian government in the names of survivors, and second and third generations the world over. Suit enjoyed small disappointments and small victories. Of course, it had to be adapted to American law—within the framework of a role in genocide, to overcome the FSIA (Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act), a stress on financial loss, spoliation.

Of course, MAV was none too pleased. MAV contended that it had the right to bring this case to justice in its own court system. We contended that all survivors who had ever filed anything in Hungary in the way of claims were dissatisfied, displeased and felt to be been brushed over like an annoying hair in the eye, with requests for documents that obviously weren’t available (death certificates from Auschwitz? Birth certificates from cities and villages no longer Hungary (and speaking a variety of some 6 other languages at least), marriage records; a slew of insurmountable barriers especially for those then residing outside of Trianon Hungary. All stated to us, producing in many cases, documentary proof of refusal, that they were exhausted from having to “exhaust” local remedies such as the MAV wished, and to no avail. They cited the suit in Hungary in the first score of 2000, against the OTP bank and the Nemzeti bank, which went as far as the Supreme Court, and was rejected all the way through. They cited Hungarian “justice” as concerned war crimes trials.

Appeals began in 2012. And here we are, 2016, almost June, and we were told late 2015 that all courts in the US had sided with the Hungarian pleas and we were to try in Hungary first, and perhaps if we were not satisfied, we could come back to Chicago. Needless to say, we ve lost some third of the survivors on the way, and it’s still a long road ahead.

There is no class action in the Hungarian judicial system. We filed a test case with an attorney in Budapest, on Feb. 19 for a claimant from Brooklyn, a survivor, with an excellent memory and an airtight case. Mentioned in the brief are the 153 survivors who were still with us at the time of the filing. To date, all we've heard is a request for further (exorbitant) fees. The survivors aren t getting any younger. Neither actually are any of us. We re exhausted too. All of us. I was hopeful—I said the MAV would do anything to keep away from the American judicial system.

So MAV, prove me right!

See original Hungarian documents as presented to the court on Feb 19, 2016, with English translation

Lahore

As the masses gathered with their loved ones to celebrate the festivity of Easter and others to celebrate a holiday at the Gulshan Iqbal Park Lahore, where a large number of Christian community members were celebrating Easter Sunday a suicide bomber ripped through the laughter of the innocent children killing over 72 and injuring over 350. "There was blood and bodies everywhere, it was devastating, I almost fainted" said John Masih a young man who was at the park with his family. Army was deployed at the crime scene, according to the reports the situation in the all the hospitals in Lahore is tragic due to the shortage of the beds in the hospitals, the injured were treated on the floors. Mary John a mother of 3 in tears was searching for her children after the blast, " my whole world has ended, the children insisted to come to the park to enjoy themselves, now I cannot find them, I have lost everything." A family of 7 members were in Lahore from Sanghar, lost their lives in the incident. 8 teenagers from Youhanabad are also among the deceased, the religious leaders have condemned the brutality and visited the injured at the Services hospital and Jinnah hospital.

"A large number of people, majority of them women and children, were present in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park in Lahore when the suicide bomber blew himself up. Mostly women and children are killed and injured in the blast, Experts say nearly 20kg of explosives were used in the blast. There were 4 attackers, 3 ran away and 1 exploded himself. " Said Lahore Police Chief Dr. Haider Ashraf. The police chief said there was an unusual rush of the people in the park due to the weekend and Easter. He said a large number of Christian community celebrating the holy day were present in the park. "Most of the dead and injured are women and children," said Mustansar Feroz, the police superintendent for the area in which the park is located. Police officials said they had recovered the body of the suicide bomber. He seems to be between 25 and 30 years old, he said. The civil society responded and rushed to the hospitals to donate blood for the injured, they vowed to stand united against extremism.

Life For All Pakistan has condemned the brutality and issued a statement, “Religious intolerance, sectarian violence and blatant terrorism is destroying the very core of our social fabric. In a plural Islamic Society, which is what we must aspire and strive to become, there is no place for intolerance, violence and appeasement of extremist groups who are trying to make our nation hostage to their obscurantist ideology. Make no mistake, the Pakistan Military is fighting a decisive battle to crush them. We know their days are numbered and Pakistan's better days are ahead of us. We have to show resolve in fighting and crushing these extremists and bringing back peace and stability to our beloved country.

Radnor PA

The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) strongly cautions Maryland lawmakers not to play politics with the state’s travel economy by overriding Governor Hogan’s veto of SB190, a new sales tax on the service fees charged by local travel agents, tour operators, and event planners. This new tax would be passed on to corporate, university and government travel departments along with significant new costs for legal obligations and accounting complexities, compliance requirements and audits. SB190 is a new tax on the services provided by local small businesses. Travel and meeting managers, including state government travel offices and state universities, are under great pressure to watch every penny of travel spend. All of these administrative costs would be on top of the new tax and would be translated into higher transaction fees from the travel agency to the travel department. As such, a double incentive would have been created to choose a less expensive destination than Maryland, if possible. If not possible, there would be less money to spend in Baltimore or Annapolis on restaurants, entertainment and other destination services adversely impacting jobs and economic activity. Not only would this bill result in downward pressure on demand for lodging properties of all sizes, it would do harm to Maryland’s 1,100 travel agencies most of which are small businesses whose owners are endeavoring to scratch out a living for themselves and their employees. BTC expects legislators will understand very well the incentive new taxes and administrative costs would provide organizations to reconsider the great state of Maryland as a business travel destination. Therefore, BTC strongly encourages lawmakers to vote against any veto override.

New York

The following open letter, written by 20 combat officers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was delivered to over 100 major donors to The New Israel Fund, including Alisa Doctoroff, The Jewish Communal Fund, Rabbi Gordon Tucker & Temple Israel of White Plains, The Jim Joseph Foundation & others. It is an appeal for American Jews to stop funding organizations that harm the Israel Defense Forces. The letter follows:

In recent years, you have donated significantly to numerous Israeli organizations and associations. The goal that you sought to achieve with your donation was to support Zionism and support organizations working for human rights and against anti-democratic activities. You support organizations that you believe work towards creating a better, saner, more democratic, and more moral Israel. The reason why you donate funds is not in doubt, nor has it ever been. However, the funds you donate are not being used to serve the purpose for which you donated them. We also know that you donate to the New Israel Fund and we wholeheartedly believe that you love the New Israel Fund, support its activities, and want to strengthen it. We wonâ€™t argue the point. However, there is one thing we ask, and, as active-duty and reserve soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces, we feel it is our right to ask.

Please demand that the New Israel Fund cease and desist from supporting organizations that defame us IDF soldiers, in Israel and around the world. These include organizations such as Breaking the Silence, Bâ€™Tselem, Yesh Din, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), Gisha â€“ Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, and Machsom Watch.

Please demand that the New Israel Fund cease and desist from supporting organizations which protect terrorists who have attacked and stabbed Israelis, even in the current wave of terror which has been plaguing Israel for over a year. These organizations, which are supported by the New Israel Fund, include: Bâ€™Tselem, Breaking the Silence, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Gisha â€“ Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Bimkom â€“ Planners for Planning Rights, Taâ€™ayush, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights â€“ Israel (PHR-IL), and Rabbis for Human Rights. Just this week, Israelâ€™s Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya'alon, forbade the entrance of Breaking the Silence to all IDF bases. This is an extraordinary move expressing how deeply Israeli society perceives that is has been hurt by this organization. Israelâ€™s Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, announced that he forbade the entrance of Breaking the Silence to all Israeli schools. Those same organizations are delegitimization organizations. Their purpose is solely to defame the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces and the State of Israel around the world. The activities of Breaking the Silence are extremely anti-Israeli and are perceived as such by the majority of Israeli society.

The organization works in various ways against Israel: They lie both within Israel and around the world, claiming that many IDF soldiers are â€œwar criminals.â€ Several of these organizations deal with promoting lawsuits against IDF soldiers and officers in Israel and around the world. They hold events at the United Nations and participate in conventions held by the European Union, where they falsely present the State of Israel as an apartheid state, a state that practices ethnic cleansing, and other horrifying lies. In interviews to the international media they claim that the soldiers of the IDF are war criminals, that the State of Israel is a war criminal. They defend terrorists in court, even those who were caught in the act, and file petitions for their release and against revoking their Israeli citizenship. These organizations take legal action to prevent the destruction of terroristsâ€™ houses by the state, and defame the state of Israel in every arena possible.

Their actions, the things they say and write against the State of Israel and IDF soldiers in the foreign press feeds anti-Israel and anti-Zionist campaigns, and even terror organizations such as Hamas quote from things Breaking the Silence say during Hamas actions against the State of Israel on the international stage.

The worst of it is not that you support and fund these organizations, but that so do European countries and Palestinian foundations. Palestinians fund their actions. The question is whether you, dear donor, knew of this activity. Does it reflect your values and do you agree that this is the use for the money which you donate to these organizations?

Dear lover of Israel â€“ donâ€™t let these Foreign Agent organizations, funded by foreign governments, tear away at Israeli democracy. Donâ€™t let them tamper with the State of Israel.

New York City

I sadly reflect over the last few days in the midst of our communityâ€™s divided response to the Iran deal crisis. When we view ourselves today in the light of our history as portrayed in the scriptures, how as a community can we American Jews be less shamed than American Jewry should have been over their poor and divided response to the Holocaust? As Golda might have opined â€“ â€œdonâ€™t be so modest; weâ€™re not so great.â€ I have examined the American Jewish response to the Holocaust for many years, sometimes to the point of obsession. We recall the New York Times burial of Holocaust news when the Ochs-Sulzbergers published anything at all on the subject. We recall the strife between Rabbi Stephen Wise and the Bergson Group, with the former working mightily to distance the White House from the â€œinfamousâ€ march of the rabbis to save the small remnant of Jews still alive in Europe. We recall the false analyses of the War Department to suppress any thought of bombing Auschwitz rail lines. For those who excused our collective behavior by arguing the tenor of the times, the unprecedented nature of the crisis and so forth â€“ what do they say today, armed with that history, about a regime that seeks endless weaponry including nuclear capability and whose â€œShemaâ€ is â€œDeath to Israel?â€ How can it be that there is a land governed by would-be exterminators of the Jewish people and Jews in the US actually have â€œdifferences of opinionâ€ on a deal which lays the path for Iran better than it did for the strengthening and arming of Nazi Germany? We delude ourselves that somehow our â€œTalmudic debating historyâ€ encourages such division on the question of self-preservation? Where is there another people on this earth who would react in the divided manner that we do?

We have leaders who make platitudinous pronouncements about â€œpluralism,â€ diversity of opinion and the like â€“ because Jewish liberalism gives them overwhelming faith in one political party and president to remedy this crisis. I am ashamed of organizations who are there for everyone else â€“ but unlike everyone else, are not there for their co-ethnics. I am ashamed that our umbrella organizations, and indeed many of our federations, including our beloved UJA here in New York must be mindful of this â€œpluralismâ€ and difference of opinion lest they tear this â€œunited communityâ€ asunder. We should not be proud â€“ we should be shamed for our warped view that reciprocity in uni-directional. We should be ashamed for NOT remembering, for NOT recalling our recent history and for the inability to understand and internalize â€œDeath to Israel.â€

Los Angeles

While StandWithUs welcomes international efforts to end Iran's nuclear program through diplomacy, the details emerging about the agreement reached yesterday, July 14, 2015, between the P5+1 and Iran raise serious concerns. It appears the deal will not prevent Iran`s regime from developing nuclear weapons, moderate its aggressive policies, or persuade it to stop sponsoring terrorism. Rather it only delays its pursuit of nuclear weapons and allows it to continue promoting violence and instability around the world. We hope that Congress, which has 60 days to review the agreement after it is submitted by the administration, will ensure that the deal protects the U.S. and our allies, and prevents nuclear proliferation in the region. This should not be a partisan issue. The stakes are too high and this will impact too many people in the international community. Here we have the world`s main sponsor of international terrorism, a fundamentalist regime that believes in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, that calls for the elimination of neighboring states, abuses its own people, and leads chants of "death to America." All Americans should work together to prevent this regime from gaining more destructive ability. The choice is not between this agreement or war. It is between an agreement that will prevent a nuclear-armed Iran and one that will not. We hope that both parties in Congress work together to ensure that the only deal America agrees to is one that will rein in Iran and keep it from getting nuclear weapons not just in the short term, but in the long term. In the not too distant past, liberal democracies failed to stop a fascist, racist, anti-Semitic regime. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake. We will do all we can to alert the public and encourage Congress to hold fast to the terms the United States and the world needs to prevent a nuclear-armed regime in Iran.

Berlin

The European coalition STOP THE BOMB sharply criticizes the announced agreement of the UN Security Council members and Germany with the Iranian regime. With what is known until now, this agreement leaves nearly the whole nuclear infrastructure of the nuclear and missiles programs intact. It does not prevent the Iranian bomb, but rather institutionalizes its necessary components. A nuclear arms race with the Arab states has already started. The aggressive regional expansion of the Iranian regime has been ignored in the talks just as the annihilation threats against Israel which have been repeated several times amid the negotiations. STOP THE BOMB regards the planned removal of sanctions as especially disturbing. Reinstating sanctions in case of Iranian violations of the agreement will prove unworkable. It took 10 years to establish the anyway insufficient sanctions architecture, which was met by harsh resistance. The Iranian regime exactly knows that there will not be a rapid reinstatement once the sanctions are removed. Billions of dollars currently blocked will soon be unfrozen as a result of this deal and at the anti-Semitic regimeâ€™s disposal. This will enable the regime to sponsor its terror proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah in unprecedented ways. The terror against the Iranian population will not decrease, but increase. Already now more people have been executed under allegedly "moderate" President Rouhani than under his predecessor Ahmadinejad.

Radnor PA

The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) applaudes the decision of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate recent public communications by major U.S. network airlines that could prove to represent illegal coordination among industry competitors to restrict capacity in domestic U.S., transatlantic and other international markets for the purpose of maintaining and/or increasing upward pressure on ticket pricing. DOJ is no doubt observing the reduction in competition and concomitant increase in total air travel prices and decrease in product innovation and declining customer service satisfaction levels. The DOJ investigation is coming at a critical time for consumers. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal's (D-CT) recent leadership on this problem is welcomed, and the European Commission should join in on this investigation. There is precedent for this investigation per previous U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigations and rulings with respect to tacit competitor coordination â€“ especially on analyst calls. The number one concern that antitrust experts have - with no close second - as with regard to radical consolidation of any industry, is the risk of tacit competitor coordination on policies, practices and prices among a reduced number of industry participants. Since recent U.S. airline mega-mergers, we have witnessed near constant airline CEO calls for 'capacity discipline' during industry gatherings and analyst earnings calls only to be echoed by analysts in follow-on earning calls with other airlines. This represents perhaps the darkest hours of airline coordination as well as a too-cozy harmonization between airlines and Wall Street. Sadly, this apparent tacit coordination on capacity is accompanied by an even more aggressive and widely coordinated attack on price transparency, consumer protections and competition.

Air Travel

Philadelphia

The American people would be saddened and sickened to learn that some Members of Congress not only put their own personal interests before their constituents but also can go much further and inflict financial harm on the traveling public, mid-size communities and those seeking employment in the travel and tourism industry.

Members are allowed to double and triple book flights home from Washington and pay nothing week in and week out for multiple changes while, in contrast, ordinary citizens can pay hundreds of dollars to make just a single flight change.

Airlines cultivate a cozy relationship with Members through that practice as well as special reservations desks that begin the very exceptional treatment Members receive throughout the entire travel experience. Airlines are repaid handsomely when they receive generous legislative support and when Members sign letters that airline lobbyists put before them.

While this convenient relationship substantially undermines credibility, specifically of a recent letter that 262 Members of the House of Representatives signed on behalf of the BIG 3 U.S. airlines - American, Delta and United - it nevertheless underscores what is so very wrong with Washingtons unyielding focus on its own interests and those of Special Interests at the expense of everyday consumers.

The BIG 3 claim that the Gulf airlines -- Emirates, Qatar and Etihad - receive government support that is harming the U.S. carriers. The Congressional letter supports the BIG 3s call for a freeze in new air services by the Gulf airlines -- all without having allowed those carriers an opportunity to respond to the allegations, not to mention the glaring hypocrisy that the U.S. airline industry, by the BIG 3s very own math, has been the most heavily taxpayer subsidized and structurally advantaged in history of commercial aviation.

Now that U.S. airlines have secured antitrust immunity for their global alliances and achieved radical consolidation of the U.S. airline industry, they want to block new competition. Members are all too willing to lend a hand in this building of Fortress America first by supporting U.S. airlines continuing quest to prevent Norwegian Air International from introducing new competitive flights to the U.S. and second by endorsing the airlines overarching strategy to increase profits by foreclosing on new competition from the Gulf carriers.

If successful in frustrating foreign carrier new entry and robust competition, then Members of Congress will have inflicted financial injury on virtually all Americans through the Mother of all Subsidies -- artificially higher airfares and fees. Whats more, Members will be responsible for lost travel and tourism jobs and reduced economic development for mid-sized communities due to lost connectivity to the worlds important business centers and emerging markets.

When it comes commercial aviation, antitrust and competition policy, the consumer represents the North Star; policy needs to be in alignment with consumers interests. Moreover, in the U.S. free enterprise system, consumers have sovereignty -- the power or freedom to have final say. In the end, consumers determine whether any business succeeds or fails. Government protectionist policies rob consumers of this power and distort markets. No market in the world is fair; to succeed market participants must play to their unique strengths and advantages. Members of Congress need to understand this and act accordingly and in the best interests of consumers.

Philadelphia

It is with great sadness that SPME mourns the loss of our friend and colleague Robert Wistrich who died suddenly on Tuesday in Rome. Robert was the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the head of the Universityâ€™s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism. The world has lost one of its leading experts on antisemitism but, SPME lost a dear friend who has been a guide and supporter of our work from the very start and he will be sorely missed.

Robert was a preeminent scholar on the study of antisemitism. A true intellectual - who mastered the history of antisemitism and became a leading scholar on the contemporary manifestations of this longest hatred - a term Wistrich made popular. He was intimately involved with the subject of antisemitism. Wistrich was born in Lenger, in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, on April 7, 1945. His family fled antisemitism in Poland a few years early but, were met with similar animosity in the Soviet Union, where his father was twice arrested by the secret police. After World War II, the family returned to Poland but encountered more Jewish hatred and relocated to France and from there to England. At the age of 17 Wistrich won an open scholarship in history to Queensâ€™ College, Cambridge, eventually earning his masters degree in 1969, followed by a doctorate at the University of London in 1974. Robert's scholarly achievements are unparalleled. Among his dozens of books and essays, Socialism and the Jews received the American Jewish Committee Award; The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph won the Austrian State Prize for Danubian History and Anti-Semitism; The Longest Hatred was awarded the United Kingdom's H.H. Wingate Prize for Non-Fiction and became the basis of a PBS documentary on antisemitism, which Robert created. With the global rise of antisemitism today â€“ it was Robert who became a guardian of the Jewish People and the gold standard for all of us.

Washington DC

Itâ€™s estimated that in the last century we have lost 97 percent of the worldâ€™s tigers. In just the last 13 years there has been a 76 percent decline in the elephant population. Last year alone, there were over 1,200 rhinoceros killed. Each of these animal populations are being severely depleted in large part due to illegal wildlife trafficking, an issue that our own government has recently announced it is taking on in an effort to combat the problem. Now, people have the opportunity to learn more about the world of illegal wildlife trafficking at a new exhibit, called â€œIvory, Tortoise Shell, & Fur: The Ugly Truth of Wildlife Traffickingâ€ at the Crime Museum, located in Washington, D.C.

â€œIllegal wildlife trafficking is an issue that we should all be concerned with,â€ states Janine Vaccarello, chief operating officer of the Crime Museum. â€œThe manner in which these poached animals are killed is horrific. If we educate the public on this cruelty, maybe consumers will stop purchasing goods like ivory earrings or tortoise shell necklaces.â€

By collaborating with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other amazing partners, the Crime Museum is able to offer the Wildlife Trafficking exhibit to the public. Itâ€™s estimated that the illegal trade market for wildlife products is around $20 billion annually. Being so profitable, it leads many people abroad to illegally kill animals for particular parts that they can sell on the black market. The items being traded include tiger bones, elephant ivory, bear and fish bladders, rhinoceros horns, sea turtles shells, and more.

Many of these products make their way to the American consumer, as well as other foreign shoppers. Many people do not realize when they purchase things made from ivory or turtle shells that the animal has been illegally poached for that purpose. Products readily available made from such harvested items include Asian medicines, wall hangings, trinkets, sunglasses, hair clips, jewelry, statues, and more.

Recently, the Obama administration announced a plan to crack down on illegal wildlife trafficking. Using American intelligence agency power, they will help locate those who are profiting from the illegal trade. The president also called it an â€œinternational crisis.â€ Even Prince William has come out and publicly condemned illegal wildlife trafficking, saying that it â€œâ€¦erodes the rule of law, fuels conflict and may even fund terrorism."

"The 'ugly truth about wildlife trafficking' is that by purchasing certain products people are contributing to the killing of endangered plants and animals, helping invasive species and diseases spread around the world, and supporting the actions of criminal networks threatening the security of many nations. But all is not hopeless,â€ says Jennifer Sevin, President, Youth Environmental Programs, Inc. â€œThere are innovative tools and techniques being implemented, such as those highlighted in this exhibit, by agencies and organizations tirelessly working to combat this illicit practice. We hope that visitors of the exhibit help reduce the demand and take action to stop wildlife trafficking."

The Wildlife Trafficking exhibit will be at the Crime Museum from June 2015 through February 2016, giving people an opportunity to see if they are contributing to the problem, and how they can help. The Crime Museum also offers a variety of other temporary and traveling exhibits, summer camp programs, walking tours, educational hands-on exhibits, and more. For more information to purchase tickets, visit their site at www.crimemuseum.org.

Binghamton

In the community's must-do file, add an urgent cautionary note for the Huron campus worksite in Endicott that sits atop a toxic pool of trichloroethylene. About 1,500 people work at the former IBM site where the ground and water table is contaminated with the chemical that IBM used in its manufacturing operations. TCE vapors have been detected in the buildings at the property that IBM sold in 2002 to Huron Real Estate Associates. BAE Systems Electronics, i3 Electronics (formerly Endicott Interconnect), Binghamton University and other smaller firms have operations on the property. An expert on TCE contamination recently told a workers and residents meeting in Endicott that employees at the location ought to be getting more information about the TCE vapor testing and the chemical's concentration levels in the indoor air. State and federal regulations have weak provisions mandating notification to workers when TCE is detected in workplaces. Workers ought to know whether the air they inhale at work carries TCE vapors and what the concentration is. Of particular concern in Endicott and at other spill sites across the country is that TCE exposure is now associated with birth defects for women exposed to it for short periods of time over days or weeks. TCE exposure has previously been linked to several serious human diseases. In 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency determined the chemical was a carcinogen.

The problem with TCE wafting into workplaces in Endicott may continue for years. Earlier this month in reporting on an in-depth look on the 35-year-old cleanup, writer Tom Wilber found there is no remedy for draining the pool of solvents from under the manufacturing site. Wilber learned from Alex Czuhanich, an engineering geologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, it may take years before a proven remedy is found. That leaves the workers in those buildings facing years of additional exposure. Meanwhile, the known risks from the TCE vapors at concentrations measured in a few micrograms per cubic meter of air is uncertain. The state Health Department determined after a 2005 study that the TCE levels at the Huron campus present a "low" health risk to people working there. That decision remains "under review" as more information comes to light, said Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond. Such reassurances provide little comfort to those working in those buildings and even smaller comfort to pregnant workers whose unborn children may be especially vulnerable to health problems from TCE exposure.

San Antonio

On Tuesday, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the nationâ€™s largest pro-Israel organization, sent an action alert encouraging senators to support the Corker-Menendez Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (S. 615). The emails to senators noted in part â€œThings are moving quickly. The Administration may reach a framework agreement with Iran by the end of this month. You must act now to ensure that any final deal is subject to your final approval.â€

â€œIt is unconscionable that the President would consider signing a deal of this import without Congressional approval. Congress is the voice of the people, and the massive response to this action alert makes clear that on Iran, the people want their voice heard,â€ said CUFI founder and Chairman Pastor John Hagee. â€œEvery major arms control agreement in recent history has been submitted to Congress for approval. A deal with Iran should be no different. Both our national security and our Constitutional balance of powers are at stake here. We expect our senators to stand up for both.â€ added CUFI executive director David Brog. With more than 2 million members, Christians United for Israel is the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world. CUFI spans all fifty states and reaches millions with its message. Each year CUFI holds hundreds of pro-Israel events in cities around the country. And each July, thousands of pro-Israel Christians gather in Washington, D.C. to participate in the CUFI Washington Summit and make their voices heard in support of Israel and the Jewish people.

Wilmington DE

Rev. Williams Owens, President and Founder of the Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP) called on Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and Kagan to recuse themselves from the same-sex marriage case to be heard by the Court this session, citing their stated bias. In order to preserve the integrity of the Court, CAAP also announced its intention of launching a petition campaign that would bring attention to the Justiceâ€™s lack of impartiality. The move sprung from public comments made by Justice Ginsburg regarding her conviction that that American public would accept a ruling for same-sex marriage as well as actions by both Ginsburg and Kagan that confirm their biased position on the issue. Both Justices have performed same-sex weddings.

A Justice of the Supreme Court is called on to avoid the appearance of biasâ€”especially on a highly controversial and sensitive issue that is currently before the Court,â€ stated Rev. William Owens, President of the Coalition of African American Pastors. â€œAnd yet, both Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan have taken a public stance in favor of same-sex marriage, even going so far as to officiate at a same-sex wedding. Not only is this a breach of ethics, but it calls into question the integrity of the Court and the supposed balance that the judicial branch is meant to provide in Constitutional interpretation,â€ Rev. Owens continued. â€œIt is beyond objectionable that no action has yet been taken to ensure that the case will be adjudicated fairly. And so it falls to us, the people, to take action. CAAP is launching a petition urging Justices Kagan and Ginsburg remove themselves from decision-making on this issue and prevent a crisis brought on by the taint of a biased judiciary.

Rev. Owens noted that members of the public were welcome to sign the petition on the CAAP website at caapusa.org. The Court has shown willingness in the past to insert itself in matters that are more properly the domain of the voters," he said. "For a case that promises to dramatically affect the future of family, religious freedom, and much more, there cannot be any question of political bias on the part of the judges involved. We ask that Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan disqualify themselves from involvement in this case or that the Chief Justice Roberts takes the action needed to protect the integrity of the Court.

Washington, D.C.

It has become quite clear that the voice of concerned Americans is not being heard by the White House. Like millions of Americans, Endowment for Middle East Truth is concerned about the failing Iranian nuclear negotiations and the breakdown of the US-Israel relationship, including the recent inflated obsession with a matter of simple protocol of a routine invitation by House Speaker John Boehner to a foreign leader to address Congress. This had been handled no differently than the 2011 invitation from Speaker Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but that was before the President was a â€œlame duckâ€ and did not need the support of the Jewish community. It is appalling that this is occurring at the precise time that the Islamic terrorist group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) reached a despicable new low as they released a video showing the captured Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned alive in a cage. Lt. al-Kaseasbehâ€™s murder is a stark reminder that the ISIS organization is the kind of evil that is not only a threat to the US, but an affront to humanity. That brutal organization is functioning now on Israelâ€™s northern border in Syria. Yet while facing these crucial national security problems for the United States and its one democratic ally in the region, the State of Israel, the White House continues to promote an ineffective foreign policy which is weakening the image of America abroad, ignoring the concerns of its citizens, and throwing our allies under the bus. Each of us will have to ask ourselves one day: did we stand aside while radical Islamists like ISIS attacked our way of life and our ally, Israel, or did we do something to help stop them? After seeing ISIS murder thousands of people, including the beheading of three Americans, you may wonder what you, as a citizen, can do. We cannot afford to sit back and wait for the White House to change its policy. There will be no change unless you make your voice heard.

Indianapolis

Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the anti-Semitic hate crime that recently occurred at the University of California, Davis. (UC-Davis). AEPiâ€™s 9,000 undergraduate and 85,000 alumni brothers stand strongly in solidarity and support with our brothers at UC-Davis. On campuses throughout North America and Europe, AEPi brothers have been leading the Jewish community and leading the student movement to defend Israel. Because of that leadership, in the last few months alone, our brothers have been the targets of anti-Semitic attacks at a dozen universities including Oregon, the Claremont Colleges, Arizona, Calgary, Loyola, Ohio, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Temple, Emory, SUNY-Oneonta, Tufts and, now, in Davis. Last week, our UC-Davis brothers proudly defended Israel while the student government voted to adopt a hostile anti-Israel resolution. Within hours of that vote, during the Sabbath night, our fraternity house was vandalized with swastikas. Anti-Semitism is on the rise on college campuses across the world, and the â€œBDS movementâ€ -- the effort to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel -- is the chief face of campus anti-Semitism. Alpha Epsilon Pi International has dispatched staff and security experts to Davis to assure that our brothers are safe in their university and safe when expressing their Judaism and support for Israel. We are cooperating with university and law enforcement authorities in the ongoing criminal investigation. Additionally, we are working in coordination with the Secure Community Network -- the national homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations -- to assure the safety of our Brothers across the world and to educate students, college administrators, and local communities about the rising tide of anti-Semitism. AEPi will not allow any brother -- or any Jew -- on any campus to be intimidated or threatened because of their ethnicity or their support for Israel.

Toronto

Today, the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) criticized a new report by World Resources Institute (WRI) for its false data on the environmental and land use impacts of biofuels. The report titled, â€˜Avoiding Bioenergy Competition for Food Crops and Landâ€™, makes several hypothetical predictions about biofuels but fails to substantiate its claim that bioenergy is competing for food crops and land.

The report, authored by Timothy Searchinger and Ralph Heimlich, claims that biofuels have increased competition for land and food but fails to show how. Several major studies, which have looked at this issue using actual historical data not hypothetical projections, have shown that increased global demand for agricultural crops has been mostly met by increased productivity, such as increased production on existed agricultural land, and not through additional land use.This means that, based on historical trends, increased use of crops for biofuels will not cause significant additional land use. Despite referring to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) throughout the report, the authors ignore recent comments from the FAO Director-General Mr. da Silva who praised biofuels for their social, agricultural and environmental benefits. The FAO chief said that biofuels are part of a necessary paradigm shift in global agriculture that will support increased food production.

Global ethanol production utilizes only 2% of grain supplies, not enough to compete with food production or significantly alter food prices. When biofuels are produced so too are food co-products such as animal feed which benefit food security, as recognised by the UN FAO, a benefit which solar panels do not have. At the same time, the significant impacts of global food waste on food supplies â€“ 50% of global food production is wasted â€“ are completely ignored by this report. Addressing this food waste, and its unsustainable consequences, is where real action is needed to ensure the world has enough food. Additionally, the positive environmental impact of biofuels are very well established. According to F.O. Licht, global ethanol production was forecasted to reach 90.38 billion litres in 2014 and its use worldwide would reduce GHG emissions by over 106 million tonnes globally, equal to removing 21 million cars off the road annually.

New York City

President Carter continues to show his bias against Jews and Israel in his latest comments linking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris. His on-air remarks were highly insensitive to the victims and their families, and his downplaying of the role of radical extremist Islamic ideology in the attack, and suggestion that other external factors were to blame, is divorced from the realities of the anti-Semitic and fanatical anti-Western beliefs of the perpetrators of the attacks in France. At a time when Christians are being targeted for violence by extremists in Arab countries throughout the Middle East and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have lost their lives in Syria, President Carter used his appearance on the Daily Show to once again express his ossified perspective on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. While we agree with President Carterâ€™s concluding analysis that the Paris attacks are a wakeup call in the fight against a â€˜new evolutionary development in terrorism,â€™ ignoring the true root causes of these attacks by focusing on unrelated factors will ultimately prove counterproductive in international efforts to combat growing anti-Western and anti-Semitic extremism and terrorism.

Washington D.C.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it is delaying finalization of the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) until 2015. Deciding not to decide is not a decision. Unfortunately, the announcement today perpetuates the uncertainty that has plagued the continued evolution of biofuels production and marketing for a year. Nevertheless, the Administration has taken a major step by walking away from a proposed rule that was wrong on the law, wrong on the market impacts, wrong for innovation, and wrong for consumers. Moreover, it is clear that one of the reasons we find ourselves in this position is that the oil industry has steadfastly refused to make the investments in infrastructure or allow their marketers to offer higher ethanol blends like E85 or E15. In the absence of their dogged efforts to undermine the RFS, this would be far simpler for EPA. The monopoly-protecting talking points of the oil industry notwithstanding, the RFS has been enormously successful. It has compelled competition in motor fuel markets, lowered consumer gasoline costs, and reduced the carbon footprint of transportation fuels. We look forward to working with the Administration to assure this critically important program is implemented consistent with congressional intent, to the benefit of consumers and with the goal of advancing the evolution of biofuels production and marketing. Refiners will continue to resist the competition from biofuels. The RFS must be allowed to be the market forcing mechanism it was designed to be. In the end, the verdict on today’s announcement can only be made after a decision on a path forward for biofuels is identified.